Theodore Sturgeon Popular Books

Theodore Sturgeon Biography & Facts

Theodore Sturgeon (; born Edward Hamilton Waldo, February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985) was an American fiction author of primarily fantasy, science fiction, and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 short stories, 11 novels, and several scripts for Star Trek: The Original Series.Sturgeon's science fiction novel More Than Human (1953) won the 1954 International Fantasy Award (for SF and fantasy) as the year's best novel, and the Science Fiction Writers of America ranked "Baby Is Three" number five among the "Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time" to 1964. Ranked by votes for all of their pre-1965 novellas, Sturgeon was second among authors, behind Robert Heinlein. An overview of his work by science fiction critic Sam Moskowitz can be found in the collective biography Seekers of Tomorrow.The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted Sturgeon in 2000, its fifth class of two dead and two living writers. Biography Sturgeon was born Edward Hamilton Waldo in Staten Island, New York, in 1918. His name was legally changed to Theodore Sturgeon at age eleven after his mother's divorce and subsequent marriage to William Dicky ("Argyll") Sturgeon.He sold his first story, "Heavy Insurance," in 1938 to the McClure Syndicate, which bought much of his early work. It appeared in the Milwaukee Journal on July 16th. At first he wrote mainly short stories, primarily for genre magazines such as Astounding and Unknown, but also for general-interest publications such as Argosy Magazine. He used the pen name "E. Waldo Hunter" when two of his stories ran in the same issue of Astounding. A few of his early stories were signed "Theodore H. Sturgeon". Sturgeon ghost-wrote one Ellery Queen mystery novel, The Player on the Other Side (Random House, 1963). This novel was praised by critic H. R. F. Keating: "[I] had almost finished writing Crime and Mystery: The 100 Best Books, in which I had included The Player on the Other Side ... placing the book squarely in the Queen canon" when he learned that it had been written by Sturgeon. Similarly, William DeAndrea, author and winner of Mystery Writers of America awards, selecting his ten favorite mystery novels for the magazine Armchair Detective, picked The Player on the Other Side as one of them. He said: "This book changed my life ... and made a raving mystery fan (and therefore ultimately a mystery writer) out of me. ... The book must be 'one of the most skillful pastiches in the history of literature. An amazing piece of work, whomever did it'."Disliking arguments with John W. Campbell over editorial decisions, after 1950 Sturgeon only published one story in Astounding. Sturgeon wrote the screenplays for the Star Trek: The Original Series episodes "Shore Leave" (1966) and "Amok Time" (1967, written up and published as a Bantam Books "Star Trek Fotonovel" in 1978). The latter featured the first appearance of pon farr, the Vulcan mating ritual, the sentence "Live long and prosper" and the Vulcan hand symbol. Sturgeon also wrote several Star Trek scripts that were never produced. One of these first introduced the Prime Directive. He also wrote an episode of the Saturday morning show Land of the Lost, "The Pylon Express", in 1975. Two of Sturgeon's stories were adapted for The Twilight Zone. One, "A Saucer of Loneliness", was broadcast in 1986 and was dedicated to his memory. Another short story, "Yesterday Was Monday", was the inspiration for The Twilight Zone episode "A Matter of Minutes". His 1944 novella Killdozer! was the inspiration for the 1974 made-for-TV movie, Marvel comic book, and alternative rock band of the same name, as well as becoming the colloquial name for Marvin Heemeyer's 2004 bulldozer rage incident. Sturgeon published the "first stories in science fiction which dealt with homosexuality, 'The World Well Lost' [June 1953] and 'Affair with a Green Monkey' [May 1957]", and sometimes put gay subtext in his work, such as the back-rub scene in "Shore Leave", or in his Western story, "Scars".Though not as well known to the general public as contemporaries like Isaac Asimov or Ray Bradbury, Sturgeon is well known among readers of mid-20th-century science fiction anthologies. At the height of his popularity in the 1950s he was the most anthologized English-language author alive. Three Sturgeon stories were adapted for the 1950s NBC radio anthology X Minus One: "A Saucer of Loneliness" (broadcast twice}, "The Stars Are the Styx" and "Mr. Costello, Hero". Carl Sagan described "To Here and the Easel" as "a stunning portrait of personality disassociation as perceived from the inside", and further said that many of Sturgeon's works were among the "rare few science‐fiction novels [that] combine a standard science‐fiction theme with a deep human sensitivity". John Clute wrote in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: "His influence upon writers like Harlan Ellison and Samuel R. Delany was seminal, and in his life and work he was a powerful and generally liberating influence in post-WWII US sf". He won comparatively few genre awards. (One was the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement from the 1985 World Fantasy Convention.)Sturgeon's original novels were all published between 1950 and 1961, and the bulk of his short story work dated from the 1940s and 1950s. Though he continued to write through 1983, his work rate dipped noticeably in the later years of his life; a 1971 story collection entitled Sturgeon Is Alive and Well... addressed Sturgeon's seeming withdrawal from the public eye in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Sturgeon lived for several years in Springfield, Oregon. He died on May 8, 1985, of lung fibrosis, at Sacred Heart General Hospital in the neighboring city of Eugene.He was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers. Sturgeon was the inspiration for the recurrent character of Kilgore Trout in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut. Sturgeon's Law In 1951, Sturgeon coined what is now known as Sturgeon's Law: "Ninety percent of [science fiction] is crud, but then, ninety percent of everything is crud."This was originally known as Sturgeon's Revelation; Sturgeon has said that "Sturgeon's Law" was originally "Nothing is always absolutely so."However, the former statement is now widely referred to as Sturgeon's Law. He is also known for his dedication to a credo of critical thinking that challenged all normative assumptions: "Ask the next question." He represented this credo by the symbol of a Q with an arrow through it, an example of which he wore around his neck and used as part of his signature in the last 15 years of his life. Life and family Theodore's birth father, Edward Waldo, was a color and dye manufacturer of middling success. With his second wife, Anne, he had one daughter, Joan. Theodore's mother, Christine Hamilton Dicker (Waldo) Sturgeon, was a .... Discover the Theodore Sturgeon popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Theodore Sturgeon books.

Best Seller Theodore Sturgeon Books of 2024

  • Remembrance synopsis, comments

    Remembrance

    Ray Bradbury

    Iconic author of Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury believed that, someday, a collection of his letters could illuminate the ...

  • Case and the Dreamer synopsis, comments

    Case and the Dreamer

    Theodore Sturgeon, Noel Sturgeon & Paul Williams

    James Blish called him the “finest conscious artist science fiction ever produced.” Kurt Vonnegut based the famous character Kilgore Trout on him. And such luminaries as Harlan Ell...

  • Blackfish City synopsis, comments

    Blackfish City

    Sam J. Miller

    “One of the most intriguing future cities in years.” Charlie Jane Anders“Simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder.” Ann LeckieA Best Book of the Month inEntertainment...

  • The Blade Between synopsis, comments

    The Blade Between

    Sam J. Miller

    A Library Journal Horror Best SellerFrom Nebula Award winner Sam J. Miller comes a frightening and uncanny ghost story about a rapidly changing city in upstate New York and the mys...

  • And Now the News . . . synopsis, comments

    And Now the News . . .

    Theodore Sturgeon & Paul Williams

    Written between 1955 and 1957, the 15 stories in And Now the News ... include five previously uncollected stories along with five wellknown works, two cowritten with genre legend R...

  • Microcosmic God synopsis, comments

    Microcosmic God

    Theodore Sturgeon & Paul Williams

    The second of a planned 10 volumes that will reprint all Sturgeon's short fiction covers his prolific output during 1940 and 1941, after which he suffered five years of writer's bl...

  • The Ultimate Egoist synopsis, comments

    The Ultimate Egoist

    Theodore Sturgeon & Paul Williams

    A collection of the early works of Theodore Sturgeon, acclaimed Grand Master of Science Fictionfeaturing forewords by Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke Alt...

  • The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century synopsis, comments

    The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century

    Harry Turtledove & Martin H. Greenberg

    LEAP INTO THE FUTURE, AND SHOOT BACK TO THE PAST H. G. Wells’s seminal short story “The Time Machine,” published in 1895, provided the springboard for modern science fiction’s t...

  • The Perfect Host synopsis, comments

    The Perfect Host

    Theodore Sturgeon & Paul Williams

    A brilliant collection of 17 classic science fiction & fantasy short stories from the “patron saint of SF short story writers” (David Brin, author of Startide Rising and The Po...

  • Bright Segment synopsis, comments

    Bright Segment

    Theodore Sturgeon & Paul Williams

    Scifi master Theodore Sturgeon wrote stories with power and freshness, and in telling them created a broader understanding of humanitya legacy for readers and writers to mine for g...

  • A Saucer of Loneliness synopsis, comments

    A Saucer of Loneliness

    Theodore Sturgeon & Paul Williams

    Kurt Vonnegut cites Theodore Sturgeon as the inspiration for his character Kilgore Trout. This volume includes 12 stories from 1953, considered Sturgeon's golden era. Among them ar...

  • The Man Who Lost the Sea synopsis, comments

    The Man Who Lost the Sea

    Theodore Sturgeon & Paul Williams

    By the winner of the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Awards, this latest volume finds Theodore Sturgeon in fine form as he gains recognition for the first ...

  • China Mountain Zhang synopsis, comments

    China Mountain Zhang

    Maureen McHugh

    Winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and a Hugo and Nebula Award nominee.With this groundbreaking novel...

  • Slow Sculpture synopsis, comments

    Slow Sculpture

    Theodore Sturgeon, Noel Sturgeon & Spider Robinson

    Theodore Sturgeon was a model for his friend Kurt Vonnegut’s legendary character Kilgore Trout, and his work was an acknowledged influence on important younger writers from Harla...

  • Thunder and Roses synopsis, comments

    Thunder and Roses

    Theodore Sturgeon & Paul Williams

    Thunder and Roses is the fourth volume in The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Included in Thunder and Roses are 15 stories, with major works like "Maturity," "The Professor'...

  • Baby Is Three synopsis, comments

    Baby Is Three

    Theodore Sturgeon & Paul Williams

    Baby Is Three is the sixth volume in the series devoted to the complete works of one of science fiction's titans. Like others in the series, this one includes extensive notes and b...

  • The Nail and the Oracle synopsis, comments

    The Nail and the Oracle

    Theodore Sturgeon & Paul Williams

    This book contains ten major stories by the master of science fiction, fantasy, and horror written during the 1960s. The controversial “If All Men We re Brothers, Would You Let One...